The two faces of Mike McGinn: Just watch his videos

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn has fielded a classic, soft-focus, “soft landing” TV spot to close his primary campaign, featuring a nice guy chuckling about early missteps and then tooting his own horn about a prosperous, happy city.

The basic themes: Seattle is in great shape and I’m the guy who can fix it.

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn: A divided message by a divisive mayor?.

Backstage, however, the pugnacious McGinn — a guy we’ve seen before — has filmed a to-the-barricades, get-out-the-vote video for supporters.

Hizzoner sounds like a 1930s labor union organizer. He stands up for downtrodden workers, claims among other things that Whole Foods “doesn’t share our values” and argues that vacating a West Seattle alley to permit a major development amounts to “corporate welfare.”

Of course, politicians reach to higher and higher hyperbole, and deliver different messages when courting different constituencies. But this is pretty brazen.

But class warfare has never cut it here, nor has any polarizing of the populace — at least since open housing was on the ballot in the 1960s. Seattle is a predominantly middle-class, live-and-let-live city. We’ve elected an African-American mayor and King County executive, and put gays and lesbians on the City Council. The Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce has severed all ties with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the latter’s extreme positions.

Yet, hear out Mayor McGinn.

First, the amiable in the 60-second TV spot you are likely to watch:

“Some people say this mayor’s race is about style. I have to admit when I came into office four years ago, I wanted to change everything all at once, and I’ve had to learn how to be mayor.

“I ran for office four years ago because I care about the same things you care about, and I want to make a difference on those things, and that’s why I’m running again. We’ve made progress and we’ve got a lot further to go, but I want to work with you to build that Seattle we believe in, and I’d love your vote.”

Now, here’s the divider McGinn, as seen by campaign workers:

“The Whole Foods issue showed there is a big difference between me and my opponents. They would have us give city land — your land — away to support a business that doesn’t share our values.

“My opponents agree with The Seattle Times and Chamber of Commerce that workers should take a back seat to corporate welfare. We won’t outspend our opponents and their corporate backers. But with your help, we can out-organize them.”

Mayor McGinn celebrates Seattle as a beacon of “diversity,” yet here is the mayor talking about “our values.” Who is he, or anybody, to define “our values?” Are we all expected to share a mindset? Or be excluded from “community” as defined from the seventh floor of City Hall?

The appeal has an “us”-vs.-”them” character, which is out of sync with Seattle’s character. The city’s liberal political class has turned to “corporate backers” on such causes as the Libraries and Families and Education Levies, touted in other McGinn commercials. The “corporate backers” have come through. The area’s information-age billionaires, in 2012, contributed millions to the campaign for marriage equality.

As well, McGinn’s claims do not comport with the facts. The City Council has final say over the West Seattle project. Developers will pay for any city land they take. As Publicola astutely pointed out late Thursday, the developers — Weingarten Realty (foolishly demonized in The Stranger) and Lennar Homes — will have to spend at least $2.4 million on public amenities.

The developers will provide a gateway plaza at Fauntleroy and Alaska, a new bus pullout, art and planning dollars for a new park, a new sidewalk and widened sidewalks.

But nuance and consistency be damned. There is political gain in sounding like what former House Speaker Tom Foley used to call “a suspender snapper.” The mayor’s effort to block Whole Foods may have tipped the scales to get him an endorsement from the Boeing machinists.

Unite Here, the union of hospitality workers, has put $50,000 into an “independent” political action committee, which is putting a glossy pro-McGinn piece of literature in your mailbox.

At a popular weekly breakfast in Madrona, the talk for weeks has been of a “good” McGinn who is finding his footing, followed by a reappearance of the “bad” McGinn, the guy who steps in it.

It’s happened in the middle of the mayor’s race. Watch the two videos and get a dose of both McGinns.